By Rick Barrack

Brands are in a bind. Marketing dollars are being slashed just as consumers are holding tight to their wallets, and no quick fixes are in the offing. But this doesn’t mean you can’t prosper in the current climate. You simply need to reach out to consumers with products and packaging that promise and deliver tangible benefits, from low price points to added value.

Remember, many companies and their brands have thrived during past economic downturns. Perhaps the most famous example is that of Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich., which doubled its advertising spending during the Great Depression and, as a result, watched its sales soar. Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s grew in the hard-hit 1970s, and Japan’s Toyota expanded into the United States during the financial tumult of the early ’90s when the “Big Three” automakers began to flail.

In the current downturn, economically priced Dunkin’ Donuts, Canton, Mass., is pressing forward by opening new outlets and launching its “You Kin’ Do It” ad campaign — an effort, no doubt, to take market share from Seattle-based Starbucks.

If these illustrations are any indication, it’s clear that investing in a brand in tough times can be the difference between success and stagnation. Consumers want to know you understand the state of the economy, that you feel their pain and that you want to help. And your packaging should communicate and reinforce your ability to do that — whether it’s showing them that they’re saving money or explaining how the product is good, and good for them.

Not all brands need to go back to the drawing board, though. Before making any decisions, you need to step back and review what’s working — and what’s not. A brand rationalization process conducted by the brand consultancy’s strategy group at the beginning of a project can help provide a roadmap for brand owners and manufacturing partners to follow. If both brand owners and contract partners follow the same roadmap, undoubtedly the results will be stronger and more efficient.

The information gathered during this process also will inform the brand team as to which brands should stay and which should go. For instance, while there are many reasons to have a broad portfolio, you might need to trim the number of brands that require management and promotion. Here is where the brand owner-contract partner relationship really can flourish, as each party has relevant perspective to share.

Of course, things are easier if you have the budget for a variety of marketing tools. Minneapolis-based General Mills, which has always used its iconic Helping Hand mascot on packaging, is promoting the character through new TV ads reinforcing the value of Hamburger Helper as a “comfort food” during an economic slowdown.

In short, when times are tough you need to make your packaging work harder for you.

Back to Basics

In troubling times, people get nostalgic. They recall better, easier days, usually associated with their childhoods. Brands that leverage their personalities and connect with people on this emotional level will likely stand out in the crowd.

General Mills is doing this trip back in time very well. In addition to recasting the Hamburger Helper mascot, it’s selling limited-edition vintage boxes of Trix, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs and Honey Nut Cheerios cereals in Target stores. As memories of simpler times flood back to the consumer viewing these packages, an emotional bond is created, suggesting that “these are brands with staying power.”

Such tactics also can garner new customers. Parents who are attracted to the throwback visuals might buy these cereals for their kids, even if they normally purchase other brands.

Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra Foods’ Orville Redenbacher is a brand that has long leveraged the retro technique, successfully using the popcorn founder’s grey-haired image in its advertising and packaging. In fact, in 2007, 12 years after Redenbacher passed away — and 30 years after he starred in his first on-air spot — the company brought him “back” in a digitally manipulated, albeit controversial commercial (some were off put by the idea of “resurrecting” Redenbacher) that showcased the company’s rich history.

Starbucks also went back in time last year, temporarily replacing its current green brand mark with its original logo — a retro, basic brown — which placed the focus on the history of the brand as one of the country’s first premium coffee experts.

Stand Out and Shout

Keep this is mind: Simple packaging doesn’t translate into staid, boring packaging. Today, with competition at a premium, it’s important to stand out and be noticed — to stop people in their tracks. Design partners can provide brand owners with a structural packaging-design exploratory. By working together with manufacturing and packaging partners, an array of packaging options that are appropriate for the brand and stand out and shout in the retail environment can be developed.

Target’s Archer Farms brand has a kids’ product line with a minimal design, but with eye-catching visuals that make the products stand out on the shelf. New York’s Peeled Snacks brand also uses a minimal design strategy; single fields of bright color and strong, simple fonts differentiate it from other snack foods. Equally striking is London’s Dorset Cereals’ shorter, fatter box; unusual, rich colors and windows designed to look like the leaves of a plant reinforce the brand’s “healthy” message and set it apart.

The Pom Group’s, Auburn Hills, Mich., POM brand is another brand with stand-out packaging. Its unique pomegranate-shaped structure certainly helps burn the brand into consumers’ minds and communicates its focus on health in an intriguingly optimistic way.

Redefine Value

Another thing to keep in mind is that, even in a recession, people are loath to sacrifice quality. Consumers’ desire for a bargain is hardly a desire for something cheap. Packaging can go a long way toward signaling “quality” for your brand and helping consumers feel better about their ability to make smart, informed choices. When it comes to actually producing the product, contract manufacturing and packaging partners can work together with brand owners to relay quality through the use of graphics, premium typography, color and structure. Putting all of these components together will provide the best results. Brand owners that allow their packaging partners to experiment and stretch their creative ability will benefit the most. In recent years, revamped private-label brands have been successfully using packaging design to redefine the idea of value. These brands may stress prudent pricing, but their recent entry into sophisticated packaging tells another story – one in which ingredients are the star and the attractive price is simply a bonus.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway’s launch of its O Organics line is a great example. Its overall look is contemporary, sleek and flexible enough to create different narratives for products. Aiding sales are displays that reinforce the brand message of savings and quality.

When Procter & Gamble’s, Cincinnati, Bounty Paper Towels, known as a brand leader by virtue of high-quality product and price point, wanted to tap into the value category, the company introduced Bounty Basic. The package design relays the value message with graphic cues: a small Bounty brand endorsement over a larger typeface for the Basic name as well as a very simple and uncluttered design. Sitting next to the regular Bounty paper towel instantly communicates the value proposition.

Increasing value and differentiating your brand also can mean adding the idea of luxury where none was perceived to exist. This is, in part, what the next generation of private-label brands is doing by “upping” the design stakes.

National brands also are going this route. The Clorox Co.’s, Oakland, Calif., Clorox brand now offers disinfecting wipes in sleek counter-worthy canisters. Presented in eight designs, the packaging offers a single-sheet dispensing system with a graphic, modern feel that combines form, fashion and function. These canisters are packaged in designer cartons that are beautiful enough to display even when entertaining guests and thus add brand value.

Such premium packaging can offer a positive halo effect for any brand. Even if consumers don’t want to spend the money for this innovation, they may be inspired to buy the brand’s less expensive, standard version instead.

Emphasize the Bottom Line

It’s pretty clear that value brands such as Target’s Choxie are best positioned in this recession. Now is their time to shine. And if you fall into this category, communicating cost-per-use information on the package is an effective means of letting shoppers know they’re economizing by using your brand. For consumers bruised and battered by the economy, value brands are actually somewhat heroic, helping where other brands can’t.

Don’t be afraid to reinforce the message any way you can. There are all kinds of packaging innovations that allow manufacturers considerably more room for communication.

When space is an issue with communicating your brand message or information about your brand, design partners can explore additional communication vehicles that could be added to an existing package or even design a new package that will communicate more effectively with your consumer. Brand owners also can use these outside sources to make sure that their solutions do not result in over-packaging.

Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo’s Gatorade is successfully using a shrink-wrap label to convey its message. Minneapolis’ Airborne Co. uses a fifth-panel riser to present pertinent information on its Airborne brand. And Procter & Gamble’s Olay Pro-X Skin Care uses a box with a wraparound cover to provide important product use information.

Of course, the conventional “bonus” and “free” claims on packages can work well, too.

Whatever you do, don’t be one of those brands that only thinks of “tough times” in terms of a drop in sales. Remember, financial downturns create an opportunity to change the game. If a business is well run and in solid financial shape, a recession could very well be the time to leapfrog the competition. While a product must be packaged, it does not have to advertise. So, kill two birds with one stone. Make the brand’s packaging work as its most effective advertising tool.

Yes, it takes time to create, test and retest innovative, effective and cost-efficient packaging. But what’s the alternative? If you sit back and do nothing, you’ll likely be in bigger trouble down the road. And what’s the downside to doing nothing during a recession? Well, it goes without saying: Out of sight, out of mind.

 

 

 Editor’s Note: A version of this article ran in the July issue of BrandPackaging, a sister publication to CM&P.